An XPrize competition funded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk just awarded teams of students $5 million to develop their ideas for carbon removal systems — and it still has another $95 million to give away.
The challenge: Between our cars, factories, and everything else, humans are pumping about 43 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.
To combat climate change, we not only need to cut that figure way down, we also need to capture and store a lot of the CO2 that’s already out there.
A recent study from the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and published in Wa | Chemistry And Physics.
This study is intriguing since one of the results of climate change is increasing water temperatures, so removing phosphorus from such waters will prove invaluable in the future, with this study appropriately being referred to as a “future-proof” method.
Since phosphorus in fresh water often results in algal blooms, removing it from wastewater prior to it being released into fresh water is extremely important. This is because algal blooms drastically reduce oxygen levels in natural waters when the algae die, often resulting in the delivery of high levels of toxins, killing organisms in those waters.
While traditional removal methods result in a large volume of inert sludge that requires treatment and disposal afterwards, this new SCELSE-developed method does not involve chemicals, most notably iron and aluminum coagulants. Using this new method, the research team was successful in removing phosphorus from wastewater at 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) and 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).
German animation and design studio, Kurzgesagt, explores the far future of humanity and how our population may change over the aeons.
Given the numerous global threats we face during this century and beyond – from climate change to nuclear war, asteroid impacts and killer viruses – many of us are concerned that humans could go extinct. But there are reasons to be optimistic, according to this latest video from Kurzgesagt. Rather than approaching the end of human history, we may actually be living at the dawn of our species; the mere prelude for a vast and exciting future that lies ahead.
Wing-like rigid sails are leaping from the rarified world of yacht racing to the backs of cargo ships.
There they go again. The firm BAR Technologies has roots in the elite environment of the America’s Cup hyper-competitive racing series, and lately it has been applying its know-how to design rigid sails for cargo ships. That’s right, wind power is making a comeback on the high seas, and the global shipping industry is down for it. Well, beginning to be down for it. Rigid sails for cargo ships are still in the tryout phase, but that could change as Russia continues to pinch the global fuel supply and climate goals kick in.
Berge Bulk Cargo Ship Catches Hard Sails Fever
BAR hooked up with Yara Marine Technologies a while back to bring its “WindWings” rigid sail technology to cargo ships. The latest shipper to take a look is Berge Bulk, which describes itself as “one of the world’s leading independent dry bulk owners with an outstanding reputation for the safe, efficient, and sustainable delivery of commodities around the world.”
SpaceX’s CRS-25 mission is set to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from launchpad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Launch is targeted for 8:44 p.m. EDT (00:44 UTC), Friday, July 14. The Dragon spacecraft will deliver new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for the international crew, including an image spectrometer to be mounted on the exterior of the station to better understand how dust plumes affect our climate, and a study of immune aging and potential for reversing those effects. It also will carry an investigation from a team of students at Stanford University that will test the process of creating biopolymer soil composite, a concrete alternative, in microgravity. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/spa…highlights.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates revealed that he will give away his wealth for various reasons ranging from climate adaptation to pandemic prevention. This will eventually cross his name off on the world’s richest people list.
With his wife, Gates started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in 2000 to fight disease, poverty, and inequity around the world\.
Gates plans to donate most of his wealth to charitable causes carried out by his foundation in the future.
In the last 250 years, humans have drastically and irreversibly transformed the Earth. Greenhouse gases emitted by human industries have changed the planet’s climate, presenting the single greatest threat humanity has ever faced. If humans can cause such incredible damage to the Earth in 250 years, what will our planet look like in 1,000 years time?
